Martinsburg daily gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1887-1887, 1887-05-21
TIE MIND CURE.
WHAT IS ASSERTED eY THE APos-
TIES or THIS OPTIMISTIC CREED.

Tho System Held In High Esteem at
Ancient Athens-Mind and Matter.
siou-scmi-Invalisls.
Shakespeare, the Universal, seems 70
have formulated the theory OF the new
s~hool OF healing when he makes Hamlet
Sos that there is nothing either good or
he'd but thinking makes it So" Perhaps
re should not speak of that system as
rev that would appear to have been
IL high esteem ut ancient Athens, and that
lad nm extraordinary vogue In the east at
the beginning Of our era. At first thought
the present interest and excitement In the
subject seem unreal and anachronistic.
But, after all, II It not natural and fitting
that the mind should be most easily and
absorbingly occupied by matters pertain
Ing to the mind itself!
To accept the doctrine OF the mind cure,
as we understand Il, IL to believe that
health, sanity and virtue are tho normal
attributes, the birthriRht possession, OF
man. Disease, dementia, sin, are negative
conditions which IL is weak, dishonorable
and sinful to harbor. "Refuse to believe
ia illness, deny pain, resist weakness"
:'ay the apostles Of this optimistic creed,
and illness, pain and weakness vanish,
because they exist only In your thought
OF them. Suffering issimply that state Of
mind that makes you imagine that you
suffer. You have only to get above suf-
fering."
The influence Of mind over matter
hardly needs assertion. The old illustra-
tons Of the moral PHILOSOPHERS alone are
proof enough. The miner dying of fright
on finding his sustaining rope too short,
in the pitch dark mine, with his feet in
reality six inches from the ground; the
blindfolded man fainting in the belief
that he was bleeding to death, when only
warm water was trickling down his arm;
the workman undergoing the horrible
manifestations Of cholera because he was
told falsely that cholera victim had just
died in the same bed-show the effect of
belief. The madness of the insane, which
Int perverted and exaggerated will
i'o"e.:, gives them the strength Of dozen
s..ac laea. And quite lately the shock Of
IL earthquake in the Riviera reused q
be-. dden woman to rush down four
flights OF stairs to the safety of the street.
WHAT THE LANCET SAYS.
Even The London Lancet, which is
nothing If not conservative, asserts that
in some cases mind has such an effect
upon an organic disease as to cause new
and healthy formations. This, it will be
seen, goes far beyond the old admission
t,lat nervousness and 'shysterian were
subject to mental influences. There is no
doubt that the tendency of the medical
profession has been decidedly material
istic, and that any leaning toward spirit
u.l methods, rs shown in magnetism,
.'hypnotism, ''clairvoyance' and their
like, has been made ut once disreputable,
SO that any germ Of truth they may have
possessed was smothered out of sight.
Yet the little we know of the potency of
the mind over the body shows ms that
there must be an iIlimitable field for its
action. If we could but find out how to set
it It work. And it would seem that our
help must come chiefly from within, not
from without. "'Tis IN ourselves that
we are thus or thus
1t appears to MS q hopeful sign OF
more wholesome Hfes that large classes of
women take time and spend money to
hear this theory of the reality of spiritual
existence expounded. After the poet,
they are discovering that ''soul is form,
and doth the body make" They are
semi invalids. They have suffered. They
have allowed their thoughts to dwell
upon their pains and limitations until
these have come largely to I'LL their men
tai horizon. Their talk is Of sickness.
Even young girls, among the well to do
and idle classes, compare symptoms and
suggest diagnoses rs staple topics of con-
yersation. Nothing could be worse, it
seems to rs, on the score of good taste or
Of s-ood health AS dwelling upon ones
cries mas fies them, SO dwelling upon
{ se;. pains magnifies them. If the mind
ere cen be made to work upon these
subjects it rc.ust restore to activity ener-
4 f.+@ xvorca ffoy, u-acfod. xx,o,,I1 $3.50